wood filler

Hello,
I am new at refinishing wood floors. we do alot of old houses.
when its time to use a filler the guy thats teaching me the ropes uses the fine dust from sanding and mixes it with a little poly finish and cornstarch. it never works.his father was in the business for 30 years(I would loved to have met him) so i figure he must have seen him make this filler but tom just doesnt have it right. what is his trying to do ? does anyone know how to make a filler using the sanddust that i could trowel over the floor prior to my finish paper. please help! thanks

I've seen filler made with PVA glue but I don't loke using it as on a lot of our timbers the PVA reacts and you get black stains. I've had success mixing sawdust with nitrocellulose lacquer, this forms a quick drying putty a lot like a product that used to be sold as "plastic wood". You'd have to make sure that it was compatible with your floor finish though. I don't know why he's using cornstarch, if anything he's probably better off using "whiting"- cacium carbonate which is used to make glaziers putty (with linseed oil). Good luck,

Mick

I've made filler using PVA glue a few times.
It looks crap
It stains crap
It gives a crap finish
and whats more I don't like it so I shan't do it ever again

We used to fix splits and cover nail holes in meranti staircase components by mixing PVA and dust from the table sander but you have to sand it while the glue is wet. This only works with certain types of cavity and probably not at all with hardwoods.

I have totally given up on mixing sawdust with anything to make a filler. The worst is any type of sawdust-glue mix (it just goes black), the best is to use the finish you plan to apply later. But even the best leaves a coarse surface that will stand out on the timber.

For floors especially, I would fill using an epoxy-based compound, which you can tint to match the timber you are repairing.

Regards from Perth

Derek

One major problem with any filler is the fact it makes the filled part stand out like dogs er scrotums. Even if you think youv'e got the colour right, the final finish always seems to highlight the filler beautifuuly, drawing anyones eye straight to it. The other thing, you can't ever get the texture right, I mean it just don't look like wood.